Land clearing (i.e. felling and mulching) operations are often performed with a heavy-duty brush cutter mounted to the front of a work vehicle. A typical brush cutter includes a brush cutting head provided with an elongate support body that carries about its outer surface a plurality of teeth adapted to cut trees, brush or the like. The cutting teeth are typically fixed to the outer surface of the drum via mounting blocks. As the support body rotates at high speed, the cutting edge of tooth comes into contact with the brush thereby creating debris as a result of the cutting action of the tooth. The resulting debris is comprised of wood chips, vegetative detritus, small rocks and dirt. Typically, following the land clearing activities, this debris is left on the ground where it will eventually (at least partially) decompose. While this may enrich the soil, it tends not to be a very efficient use of natural resources given that no effort is made to recover and use the wood chips which (while actually quite versatile) tend to be regarded as a waste by-product of land clearing activities.
In light of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to have an apparatus and method which would allow wood chips to be relatively easily, recovered, collected, stored and transported for use so as to minimize wastage of such wood chips and enhance utilization of natural resources.